A Little Bit of This and a Little Bit of That . .: August 2012

Thursday, August 30, 2012

Up the West Coast - Day 2 - 8/24/12 - Sunnyvale & San Francisco, CA

Tiburon, CA

After having a big breakfast at Denny's we headed up to the Wadley's but before we got there we did stop by our old house and the kids elementary school (I spent a lot of time there too). Boy has our house changed a lot. The new people have filled in the pool and have grass in the back yard and now are in the process of building a second floor. The kids school has changed some too with a new addition and more portables.

Front of our old house in Sunnyvale

Cumberland Elementary School

Back of our old house

We have known Randy and Terri since we moved to Sunnyvale 16 years ago. We took Randy's car and he drove us to Tiburon, on the north shore of San Francisco Bay. From there we took a ferry to the Angel Island. First we were thinking of renting Segways and doing the tour around the island. Then we thought that bicycles would be nice too since with them we can go on our pace. But when we got there there wasn't enough bikes for the four of us. Some more were supposed to be returned by 12:30 but it might not have given us enough time to bike since the last ferry back left at 3:30. But there was a Segway tour starting at 1pm so we signed up for it. It wasn't cheap, but boy was I happy we did that instead of the bikes. I would probably still be pushing my bike up the hill. While we were waiting for the tour we had a quick bite to eat and toured the little visitor center. The tour took us around all of Angel Island. We could see the old immigration buildings and army barrack, Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco and Alcatraz. It took surprisingly short time to get used to it. I was quite wobbly in the beginning and especially going down the hills. But it was a lot of fun and I'm happy we did it.

Tiburon as seen from the ferry

Visitor's Center on Angel Island

Learning how to use the Segway

Still learning but doing much better

And off we go. . .

The haunted hospital

Camp Reynolds

Golden Gate Bridge in the distance

San Francisco and Alcatraz on the front

Sand making machine

Park personal residences

Fort McDowell hospital ruins

Jeff and I at Angel Island

Still afraid to go downhill

and more downhills, this is almost at the end

Uphills are easier, this is at the beginning

After the tour we headed to San Francisco and had dinner at the Calzone's. It was an interesting place with all kinds of merchandise on the shelves around the restaurant. And the food was good too. From there were headed to Buena Vista, which is the place where Irish Coffee was invented. Terri's cousin works there, but he was not in that day. We did have an Irish Coffee and Jeff and Terri, the non coffee drinkers, had Peppermint Schanpps hot chocolate. The time change and fresh air started to whack me out and soon we headed back to Sunnyvale and our hotel in Santa Clara.

Golden Gate Bridge

Calzone's Restaurant

Cable car

Terri, Randy and Jeff at the Buena Vista

Up the West Coast - Day 1 - 8/23/12 - Newtown, CT to Sunnyvale, CA

We got up at the crack of dawn and drove to Bradley Airport in Hartford, CT. Bradley is so much easier to get to than any of the New York airports which take forever to get to and there might be long delays with take offs. Bradley also has some nice rocking chairs you won't see in too many other airports.

Our flight took us to San Francisco via Chicago's Midway airport. To our surprise all the flights were early, the last one 40 minutes. We received our car for the car rental place and headed up to Santa Clara. Our hotel for the next two nights is Hyatt Regency in Santa Clara.

There has not been a Douglas vacation without a traffic jam

View from our room

We checked in and after that headed out to our favorite Thai restaurant in Sunnyvale, Thai Basil. Surprisingly it still exists, but Sunnyvale sure has changed a bit. We had our dinner and after headed back to the hotel. Even though it is only 3 hour time difference, it still affects you.

Thai Basil Restaurant

Murphy Street, Sunnyvale, CA

Appetizer - shrimp spring rolls

My main course - can't remember what it was called

After we got back to the room there was a knock on the door and delivery from the hotel. It was their gift to us for our 30th wedding anniversary - a bottle of wine and cheese, crackers and dried fruit tray. Thank you so much Jennifer at the front desk.

Sunset in Santa Clara as seen from our window

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Trip from Latham, NY to Brattleboro, VT to back home via MA

Jeff bicycled this weekend with this years ABB North riders from Latham NY to Brattleboro VT. I tagged along so he was able to get there and back home again. We arrived to Latham on Friday afternoon and met the ABB team with some goodies for their SAG stops the next day. Jeff had dinner with them while I had some fast food. We took the dog with us, since the whole trip happened kind of fast and since it was so hot and humid we couldn't leave her in the car for more than a few minutes at a time.

Jeff ready to go in the morning.

Paper Mill Covered Bridge, Bennington, VT

Inside Paper Mill Bridge, Bennington VT

Painted moose in Bennington VT

Town Hall, Wilmington, VT

Hogback Mountain, VT

Jeff arriving to the top of Hogback Mountain, VT

Jeff on top of Hogback Mountain, VT

Hogback Mountain, VT

View from Hogback Mountain, VT

Jeff left early in the morning, around 7 am to meet the other riders since we didn't stay in the same hotel (theirs didn't allow dogs). He arrived at the hotel in Brattleboro before 2pm. After he was done riding he had a quick shower and then we headed back home. We were thinking of staying there overnight if it would have taken him longer. Along the way we did a quick detour to Shelburne Falls, MA to see the Bridge of Flowers, which was beautiful. What a great use of an old bridge that was not needed anymore.